Update
The Cluster 3 note and the Rule of Law report: two pictures ...
Within a single fortnight in July 2026, the European Commission produced two documents about the sam...
The Basic Court in Pancevo on 1 July 2026 found ETF student Andrej Tanko guilty of obstructing an official under Article 23 of the Law on Public Order and Peace, sentencing him to a suspended six-month prison term. The sentence will not be enforced if he does not reoffend within a two-year probation period; three months Tanko already spent in pretrial detention count toward the term.
The charge stemmed from a protest in Pancevo on 13 August 2025, when Tanko allegedly sprayed a police officer with liquid the prosecution described as being of unknown composition; the defense maintained it was ordinary water. His lawyer, Srdjan Mikovic, said the court found no offense against a policewoman who was also sprayed, but ruled that spraying a male officer in full riot gear - helmet, shield, and other protection - amounted to obstruction, even though the officer never gave Tanko a warning or an order to stop. Mikovic argued this points to the absence of any real disturbance and announced an appeal to the Higher Court in Pancevo. +
Tanko became a symbol of non-violent student resistance after he was photographed and filmed in December 2024 standing calmly, without reacting, while a man confronted him and got in his face during a "Zastani Srbijo" gathering in front of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. The same man - identified in press reports only by the initials M.M. - separately struck another student during that same gathering. He later admitted guilt in a plea agreement with the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade for violent conduct at a public gathering, receiving a suspended six-month sentence, a three-year probation period, and a fine of 50,000 dinars.
The charge stemmed from a protest in Pancevo on 13 August 2025, when Tanko allegedly sprayed a police officer with liquid the prosecution described as being of unknown composition; the defense maintained it was ordinary water. His lawyer, Srdjan Mikovic, said the court found no offense against a policewoman who was also sprayed, but ruled that spraying a male officer in full riot gear - helmet, shield, and other protection - amounted to obstruction, even though the officer never gave Tanko a warning or an order to stop. Mikovic argued this points to the absence of any real disturbance and announced an appeal to the Higher Court in Pancevo. +
Tanko became a symbol of non-violent student resistance after he was photographed and filmed in December 2024 standing calmly, without reacting, while a man confronted him and got in his face during a "Zastani Srbijo" gathering in front of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade. The same man - identified in press reports only by the initials M.M. - separately struck another student during that same gathering. He later admitted guilt in a plea agreement with the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade for violent conduct at a public gathering, receiving a suspended six-month sentence, a three-year probation period, and a fine of 50,000 dinars.
